The IIHF Got Stuffed Into A Locker By An Arbitration Court Which Ruled That Russian Teams Can Immediately Start Playing In International Hockey Tournaments Again
Andre Ringuette. Getty Images.Sportsnet -- Russia must be allowed to return to the hockey world championships, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday, overturning an exclusion in place since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The first tournament the ruling affects is the world junior championship, starting Dec. 26 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta.
…CAS overturned IIHF decisions which excluded Russia from events in the 2026-27 season including the men’s and women’s world championships. Russia also missed the Olympics tournaments this year.
Okay so here's the thing--there are terrible world leaders doing horrible shit all across the world. Horrific atrocities are occurring all over the place. And even if certain nations aren't directly involved in committing those atrocities, they are certainly helping to fund them. The world is a stage. You have countries funding both sides of wars because either A) it's a distraction or B) it's a money making machine. The point I'm trying to make here is that politicians and people in power are terrible human beings.
Athletes are not. And it just doesn't make any sense to punish certain athletes for the actions of their political leaders when the same isn't being done about others. Clearly banning Russian athletes from competing in international hockey tournaments isn't going to magically stop the war in Ukraine like the IIHF thought it was. Clearly not allowing Russian athletes to compete in the Olympics isn't going to make Putin put his tanks away like the IOC thought it would.
The only impact of the ban so far is that it has weakened international hockey tournaments. Ever since the ban on Russian players, we have seen Alexander Ovechkin set the NHL's all-time scoring record. Nikita Kucherov won the Art Ross Trophy in 2024 and 2025, and was the 2026 Hart Trophy winner. Russian goalies have won 5 out of the last 13 Vezina Trophies between Vasilevskiy, Shesterkin, and Bobrovsky. Vasilevskiy and Bobrovsky each won 2 Cups. And Matvei Michkov is literally on pace to become the next Kucherov.
It just seems crazy to have an international hockey tournament without those guys involved. And the other thing here is that if you really wanted to stick it to Russia and break their morale, then you would want to beat those guys. You wouldn't want to just ban them from playing so they can feel like they're the boogeyman. You'd want to destroy them on the ice and crush their spirit. Want Putin to feel like a little bitch? Have Team USA lay an absolute smackdown against the Russians like a reversal of that Madison Square Garden game before the 1980 Olympics.
All we can hope for now is that USA and Russia are in the same pool for the World Juniors this winter. Give me USA vs Russia on New Years Eve.